Is it healthy to be shredded? And, what’s the cost of being lean? That’s what we are going to explore in this post!

Essentially, it depends on the individual. For me, having higher body fat is more healthy, for others, rocking a 6-pack is perfectly healthy for them. It comes down to what you have to do to achieve it, and what you have to do to maintain it.

Take my comparison as an example;

When I last competed in bodybuilding, my lowest weight was 60.2kg. I was doing did 6 weight-training sessions, and daily cardio to get down to that weight. Calories were around 1350/day. I felt ok but it was not maintainable, and, you need body-fat to produce healthy hormones, and to have enough energy to get through the day.

Post competition I started what we call a reverse diet – where you increase calories over time to avoid the weight rebound that comes with the weight loss/regain cycle. So I brought my calories straight up to 1650/day, with the goal of slowly increasing whilst trying to stay as lean as possible. I also wanted to provide my body with the right environment to get my menstrual cycle back.

My body needed to feel ‘safe’ again.

At 63kg (left pic), with reduced activity and more food, I still didn’t have my cycle, energy, or mental stamina back. I was obsessing over food and not recovering well from my training sessions.

I knew I needed to gain more body fat, and was willing to gain whatever I needed to, (but was hoping it wouldn’t be much so I can look freakish and shredded all the time, like all those instagram models do).

Fast forward a couple months and I decided my menstrual cycle was the priority, so I lowered activity and increased food even more. I got it back at 67kg (right). So for me, I probably can’t have abs AND a healthy cycle at the same time.

My point here is, someone can have abs and be healthy, eating lots of food and thriving. Someone else can have abs but they will be unhealthy, struggling through every day to keep body fat low. It’s INDIVIDUAL. My body doesn’t feel safe with low food, low body-fat, and high activity.

Try to avoid using abs as a goalpost for what you should achieve with your own body. Instagram makes it look like these physiques are the pinnacle of health, and that they’re super common, but it is actually quite rare to have this, with health in tact.

And by health I’m talking about TRUE health, not the passed-a-generic-blood-test kinda health.

Now, I feel great. I lost 21kg in total to get to the stage, and have gained 11kg back, which was ESSENTIAL. I enjoy a weekly Messina and there is really nothing I need more.

Jen X